


Go Back To Sleep

by RustedWireWitch



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Nightmares, Psychological Horror, Sleep Paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:12:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RustedWireWitch/pseuds/RustedWireWitch
Summary: Years after the events of Duel Monsters, Ryou Bakura has retreated to a quiet, safe and unremarkable life. He wakes one night with a nagging thought: Did I lock the front door?
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16
Collections: Yu-Gi-Oh! It's Time to G-G-G-Gift! [Mini-Exchange]





	Go Back To Sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SheepySeconds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheepySeconds/gifts).



Whatever Ryou had been dreaming about, it was gone and forgotten by the time his eyes had started to focus. His heart was coming down from a feverish pace, the blood pounding in his ears but slowing and dimming to a gentle hum. The darkness of his room, viewed over the edge of his pillow, told him that it was still the middle of the night, and he reached out his hand to the bedside table. He closed his fingers around his phone and brought it up to his face, wincing at the light.

  
_03:02_

  
He sighed, hoping it wouldn't take him too long to get back to sleep. He would have to be up in less than three hours and-

  
The noise downstairs interrupted his thoughts. A subtle one, one that could easily be a simple creaking of timbers, the house settling into place. In the blur of waking in the middle of the night, though, it set Ryou's mind in motion. Had he locked the door before he had turned in for the night? He was sure he had, he always did. But did he remember specifically turning the key in the lock? No, of course not, why would he remember something so trivial? Something so automatic. 

  
He lay there, glaring up at the ceiling, eyes finally attuning to the darkness. Every creak of the building sounded exactly like a footstep. Every innocuous noise that could come from outside or next door sounded like it was coming from the rooms directly below him. He knew there was no chance of getting back to sleep until he went and checked for himself, to put his mind at rest.

  
He threw off the covers, immediately regretting it as the cold air grasped at the exposed skin of his hands and feet. The warmth of his pyjama trousers and baggy t-shirt were a little comfort, but he couldn't help but suck in a hissing breath as he slipped out of bed and started to creep across the bedroom floor. Opening the door and making his way along the hall, he reasoned that in the end it would be for the best. He could enjoy slipping back into bed and savour the warmth of drawing the blankets up again. He would just quickly jostle the handle of his front door, confirm he'd locked it, and then he'd be back up and sleeping again before he knew it.

  
He paused at the top of the stairs, frowning as he looked down. The stairway looked so thin and steep in the darkness, stretching on far longer than it should have done. He lifted his hand to feel for the light switch and froze in place. 

  
His eyes traced the outline of a shape at the bottom of the stairs. A hunched over back, someone sitting at on the last steps, head bowed low with a mess of hair hanging in clumps. He didn't dare look beyond it, but the breeze snaking its way around him told him that the front door was open, a slight creaking in the night air as it swayed on the hinges. He tried to force himself to swallow, a dry and dusty sensation rising in his throat.

  
"I hope you don't mind that I let myself in." The voice from the figure below was muffled, chin pressed into chest and arms folded over the face. Even so, Ryou recognised it instantly. "I assumed you wouldn't. You always were good at letting me back in, after all."

  
Ryou said nothing, finding himself locked in place. His knees and ankles ached with tension, a tremor coursing through him and shaking his guts.

  
"I spent a long time trying to find you, you know?" The intruder muttered. "And in my current state, it's not as though travelling is particularly easy."

  
He lifted his head just a little, and Ryou flinched. Strands of silvery hair clung to a wet and filthy face, framed by the most meagre offering of light imaginable. Ryou could feel his eyes straining in the darkness, or perhaps the burning of tears welling up and threatening to fall. He opened his mouth to say something, suddenly becoming acutely aware of the heavy pounding of his heart in his chest. It reverberated up his throat, rumbling like a fire ready to spill forth. Even so, no words came out.

  
"I must say, though," the intruder continued, stretching his neck to the side and eliciting a wet popping sound, "I am a little disappointed in you. With me out of the way you had the whole world at your fingertips. You could make something of yourself. Make something for yourself. And you settled for..." He gestured to the surrounding rooms of Ryou's house, "mediocrity."

  
The tears were falling now, Ryou could feel them warming his cheeks. He could hear them pattering on to the carpet.

  
"And I'm sure you know what that means I need to do." The spirit sighed.

  
Ryou's arm ached as he reached along the wall, feeling for the switch, blindly fumbling for the square of plastic jutting from the wall. The smooth painted surface seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. His fingertips couldn't locate salvation. He felt the pull to turn his head and search for it, but he couldn't pull his gaze away from the hunched figure on the stairs. 

  
Time stretched on. Ryou stared through blurred eyes at the back of the intruder's head, engaging him in a one-sided duel of chicken. Something in the posture, the shifting of his neck and shoulders, gave Ryou the unshakeable notion that a grin was stretching out across the spirit's face.

  
He drew in a sharp breath and turned his head, looking to the wall and at the outline of the switch panel in the gloom. A displacement of air, a slight dip beneath his feet and something pressed down on the floorboards of the stairs. Below, the sound of thudding, crashing footsteps as something came rushing up the steps, pounding hands and feet into the carpet in a mad, feral dash for the top.

~

Ryou's eyes flickered open, instantly screwing shut at the light streaming in from his windows. He gurgled a curse at himself. Going to sleep without shutting the curtains tight, again. He groaned as the light bathed his eyelids, sparks of white and red dancing in the black. If it was light out, then it was way past time for his alarm to have gone off. He cursed again, rolling over to reach out for his phone.  
Or rather, he attempted to do so.

  
He rocked gently in the bed. Left to right. Back and forth. No matter how much effort he threw into it, he remained exactly where he was, perhaps jostling in place ever so slightly. Numbness and prickling settled into his arms, as though he'd somehow been laying on both of them while he had been sleeping.

  
Feeling panic start to creep in, he doubled his efforts, trying to pull himself into a sitting position. No part of his body would obey and, if anything, he felt as though he were deeper into his mattress than he had been when he awoke. He couldn't even tell if his eyes were open anymore, the blurred specks of light streaking across his vision could very well have been his ceiling for all he knew, shadows playing against the surface as the light shifted.

  
He lay there, trying to take stock of his situation, trying desperately to get his hammering heart under control. It beat rhythmically against his ribs.

  
Thud.

  
Thud.

  
Thud.

  
He realised that the sound was not echoing through his blood, pounding in his ears, it was filling the room. It was the steady, heavy beat of a fist against the wood of his bedroom door. Knock after knock after knock.

  
He tried to call out as the knocking travelled along the wall, a hand striking against the plaster, fingers scraping along it. All he could muster up was a gargled, guttural croak that died in the air before it could reach his own ears.

  
The scraping along the wall doubled back, heavy footsteps marching back along the hall to Ryou's bedroom door, slamming into the floor with violent intent.   
For a moment, there was silence.

  
Something hurled itself at the door, colliding noisily with the wood and eliciting an awful cacophony of crashes and the sound of splintering wood fill the room. He could hear it backing up, readying itself for another charge.

  
Ryou poured every last ounce of willpower he had into moving himself. He strained and struggled, inwardly screaming as he turned himself onto his side, flopping over like a drunk, turning himself towards the window. He tumbled over onto his front, desperately using the momentum to keep himself rolling, throwing himself over the edge of the bed and down onto the floor below just as the thing outside his door collided with the wood once again.

  
Ryou tried to struggle against the mess of blankets he had pulled with him, surrounding him and holding him like a web. Every tiny movement was a Herculean effort that left him struggling to breathe. He gripped at the blankets and pulled them aside.

  
He was back, laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling through closed eyes. Everything was where it had been. Nothing had changed.

  
With a third effort, the thing outside charged his door again, striking it with even greater force and making the whole thing bend inwards. Everything came away from the hinges, eliciting a hellish screech.

  
Luckily, by then, Ryou had tumbled down into darkness.

~

Whatever Ryou had been dreaming about, it was gone and forgotten by the time his eyes had started to focus. His heart was coming down from a feverish pace, the blood pounding in his ears but slowing and dimming to a gentle hum. The darkness of his room, viewed over the edge of his pillow, told him that it was still the middle of the night, and he reached out his hand to the bedside table. He closed his fingers around the welcome weight of his phone, pausing in mid-grasp.

  
Outside, rain began to patter against the window, the noise dampened by the thick, closed curtains. It built in intensity, and in the distance he heard the quietest whisper of thunder.

  
Ryou's hand traced the outline of the device on his bedside table. The texture of smooth, expertly worked metal, the softness and weight of the gold as it passed under his fingertips. It seemed to hum at his touch, a soft buzz of static travelling up his arm and numbing his sensations. He tightened his grip as best he could, lifting it up. The golden spikes somehow seemed to glisten in the pitch blackness, the pendulums swayed from the ring as his hand started to tremble. The points dragged along the bedside table as he slowly lowered it, letting it clatter down. There was no echo, just a single metallic noise as it was set down, coming to rest.

  
Ryou could feel the tears coming against, already sinking into his pillow, prickling against the skin of his cheek and nose. He tried to let go out of the ring, but his hand was locked in place, numbed and unresponsive. He shut his eyelids as tightly as he could, straining to pull himself awake, willing himself out of the darkness.

  
The rain continued to pelt the window, the thunder still distant but growing ever closer.

  
The tears built up as the figure next to him in the bed turned over, pressing a cold, hard hand firmly to his shoulder. It was a soothing gesture, but carried all the warmth and nurturing nature of a long-dead corpse. The numbness carried on up and into his chest as the figure patted the side of his face with thin, iron-like fingers. A voice half-whispered, half-threatened.

  
"That's it. Go back to sleep."


End file.
